As I grab a quick bite to eat at my desk tonight ("movie-style" microwave buttered popcorn. What "movie-style" means I have no idea. Overpriced and served by an indifferent 16 year old?) I can't help feel a little envious of the reporters in Iowa and New Hampshire. They are knee-deep in presidential candidates.

As campaign territory, Florida right now reminds me of a scene in an old Western. Picture a recently abandoned town. Not a soul in sight. The squeaky doors of the otherwise silent saloon swing in the hot, dusty wind. The occasional tumbleweed lumbers by. Where is everybody? Did the well dry up? Did Calvera and his men scare everybody off?

We are roughly a month and a half from Florida’s presidential primary. Florida! The decider, more or less, of the last two presidential elections. The state with 27 big fat juicy electoral votes up for grabs next November, the most of any of the states generally considered toss-ups. This is Florida! So where are all the candidates? That’s a rhetorical question. I know they are in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and occasionally Nevada. We do see a trickle of Republicans now and then. Huckabee and Thompson were in south Florida today and yesterday I believe. And by the way, Huckabee picked up the endorsement of House Speaker Marco Rubio while he was here. But where are the Democrats? They lost this state the last two times around. You’d expect them to be thick as flies buzzing around our meeting halls and breakfast joints begging for our attention.

What happened of course is that some powerful people felt the state got lost in the shuffle with a March primary last time. So to raise the state's profile to better match its actual power lawmakers voted to move up the primary date to the spotlight-stealing January 29th. But the DNC didn't like the early spotlight here. It likes it where it has always been - New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina. And to make sure it stayed there the national party essentially forbade candidates from campaigning in Florida until after the primary.

You know all this already. I am just reminding myself why it’s so darn quiet here. As a journalist, I’m ready for Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen to ride in and get all this business settled so the candidates will come back.

It also reminds me to rent The Magnificent Seven this weekend. And to bring a sandwich or something tomorrow night. This popcorn really isn't doing it for me.